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Concept
Monolithic church
Summary
A monolithic church or rock-hewn church is a church made from a single block of stone. Because freestanding rocks of sufficient size are rare, such edifices are usually hewn into the ground or into the side of a hill or mountain. They can be of comparable architectural complexity to constructed buildings.
The term monolithic church is used of churches in various countries, not least the complex of eleven churches in Lalibela, Ethiopia, believed to have been created in the 12th century.
Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela
The eleven monolithic churches in Lalibela are:
Church of the Redeemer
Saint Mary
Mount Sinai
Golgotha
House of the Cross
House of the Virgins
Saint Gabriel
Abba Matta
Saint Mercurius
Immanuel
Church of St. George (Bete Giyorgis)
The most famous of the edifices is the cross-shaped Church of St. George. Tradition credits its construction to the Zagwe dynasty King Gebre Mesqel Lalibela, who was a devout Orthodox Tewahedo Christian. The medieval monolithic churches of this 12th-century "New Jerusalem" are situated in a mountainous region in the heart of Ethiopia near a traditional village. Lalibela is an important center of Ethiopian Christianity, and even today is a place of pilgrimage and devotion. Lalibela is one of the world's heritage sites registered by UNESCO.
Many other churches were hewn from rock in Ethiopia, outside of Lalibela in Amhara Region. This practice was very common in Tigray, where the outside world knew of only a few such churches until the Catholic priest Abba Tewelde Medhin Josief presented a paper to the Third International Conference of Ethiopian Studies in which he announced the existence of over 120 churches, 90 of which were still in use. Despite Dr. Josief's death soon after his presentation, research over the next few years raised the total number of these rock-hewn churches to 153, particularly in the districts Kola Tembien, Degua Tembien, Hawzen and Sa'esa Tsada Amba.
Their precise ages are not well defined but the majority were probably carved during the reigns of the emperors Dawit II (ca.
Official source
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